So Frankly...

Friday, January 13, 2012

Tasteless Fun: Dominion -- Great Game, Little Flavor

I have to confess that Dominion is completely out of style with the games I normally like. In fact, I probably would never have played it except for my brother's family. The year it was published it was quite the rage. Yet its reputation as a themeless game put me off.So did the constant card shuffling I heard about.Then why, in the end, did I end up giving it a rating of 9 out of 10?After all, I like games that drip with theme, telling a story as they are played.I was just as surprised as you.

Incredible fun in 30 minutes!

That year, when my brother and his wife came back from visiting one of their kids, they raved about Dominion.For my brother to do this, it must be a huge success as a family game.His motto is, “If it starts to feel like work, I’d rather work.”This game he was anxious play with us.For Christmas they gave my son a copy.I still wasn’t convinced.Not until we sat down to play it a few months later was I completely won over.We got home late the night of our first play, but still took the time to break the seal on my son’s copy and get it ready to play.A few days later I bought a copy of Dominion: Intrigue, which is the first expansion, but is also playable as a standalone version.This way, when Big D (he has grown taller than me since I started this blog!) goes off to college, I am sure to have a copy.

Dominion is a card game which is supposedly building up a kingdom, a dominion, by adding various places, people and features to it as the game goes on.However, the game doesn’t really feel like you are doing any of that.Typically, this is where I take a pass.The game play in Dominion is so good, however, that it makes up for any lack of flavor.

Players have a deck of cards that sits at their left hand, and are holding five cards.At your right hand is your personal discard pile.More cards of various types are on the table for purchase, including cards which represent money and cards that are victory points.On your turn, you can play one card from your hand for an actionand/or buy a card from the table, and then you “clean up” by discarding everything you bought, played and your hand.Five cards are drawn from your deck for the next turn.An action allows you to draw more cards, make more than one purchase, play more actions, attack or defend or some combination thereof.When your deck runs out, you shuffle the discard pile and make it the deck and keep going.When the game ends, the person who has the most victory points wins.

Some of the cards from Dominion (Image by Gary James)

That’s not a thorough description without going into the cards, but it does go about that fast: 30 minutes for a complete game.It’s not terribly complicated.(Little ones will have trouble with shuffling and reading text on the cards though.)Your deck grows as you buy cards and they eventually cycle around.The fun is in the interaction of the cards.I love trying to buy cards that will work in combination to allow multiple actions or buys, or more valuable buys.

The game components consist exclusively of the cards and the rules.While available at Target and Barnes & Noble, don’t look for it on the same rack as Rook, or Monopoly Deal.This game comes in a full size box.That’s because it doesn’t have the usual 50 – 100 cards; there are 500 cards in the box!The artwork is adequate, though not awe inspiring.As I said, the excellence of this game is in the game play.

If I haven’t convinced you yet, consider that Dominion was the 2009 Spiel des Jahres winner.Since its publication, the game mechanism of buying the cards you will play with later in the game has appeared in a lot of games.I haven’t played any of them, since I love this game so much.It’s hard for me to justify another game that largely plays the same way.

I gave this game a 9 / 10. That's pretty high praise from me; it's a rating for games I don't imagine giving up.